The 20th of November 2006 was a really nice Monday for me. After a cool interview with Sabina of Holy Moses (who will also come with us to the concert), I came to the famous Elysée Montmartre for a true Viking night with Tyr, Wintersun and Amon Amarth.

In general, the shows start early in this venue and not a lot of people were there to see the performance of the progressive metal act from the Faeroe Islands. But even if we weren't a lot to support them, Tyr produced a really good show with, of course, the help of their catchy Viking/folk melodies. Actually, I can even say that it was great, I mean that their music is mystic on a side and the fact that some of their lyrics are in Danish (???) was extremely weird but also hypnotic for the French audience. The set was composed of old songs like "Hail To The Hammer" and new ones, like "Ragnarock", and we even had the luck to sing on the really cool cover of the classic Irish folk song, "The Wild Rover". Even if Tyr was a bit static and seemed a bit shy and not really communicative, it was a nice show and I really hope that I will be able to see them again in the future.

Wintersun was the second band of the night. I wasn't so confident before the show, as I didn't really know the unique album of the band, so I wasn't sure of the ability of the Finnish combo to produce a big catchy show. But I was wrong, definitely. Wintersun is a powerful band with a lot of charisma and the performances of their two guitarists were just amazing. The fact that the singer uses Death/Black Metal vocals was not a problem and, like Tyr, their mix of Folk and Metal was extremely good to me and to the numerous Parisians who came to this concert. The crowd was a lot more important for Wintersun and that's obvious a lot of people came to the venue to see this band. Good idea, since their show was really good, catchy and all, but not disappointing. Tiptop!

Finally came Amon Amarth's turn. It was the second time I saw the band and once more, I took a big slap in my face. I will not talk a lot about the songs, as you probably know the set list was decided by the votes of the fans on their website, so yes, we had the chance to listen to all their hits like "Death In Fire", "1000 Years Of Oppression", or "The Victorious March" but we had also songs like "Fate Of Norns" and songs from the new album. The performance of the Vikings was extremely convincing, full of charisma of energy. The anger, the power of their music - combined with some excellent epic melodies - worked wonderfully. The crowd was totally crazy and headbanged big time.

The guys of Amon Amarth were really communicative. They invited the people from France to drink a beer with them (yeah, they all used their drinking horn) and it was even possible to read some jokes about Asterix (they had a paper on the drums which said something like "Asterix is on strike cuz' he doesn't want to cross the border to Roasbeef's land. Please find a trick to convice him!!!"). It was a really funny atmosphere, really friendly and those cool breaks were welcome by the crowd. At the end, I must admit that it was one of the best shows I attended since a lot of time, and yes, Amon Amarth is a great band live which deserves to be a headliner. Without any doubt…

Luckily, Amon Amarth, Wintersun and Tyr stopped in Paris. If at the beginning, not a lot of people were present, the venue was nearly full at the end. We got a great show, three great performances and a lot of big, intense riffs and melodies. Viking Metal just rock, this is one of the catchiest music I know and if you can attend an upcoming show of one of these bands in your town, don't miss this opportunity! Hail and Skål Viking guys!

Thx one more time to Mr Roger and Base for the press and photo accreditation.